Abstract:
Nearly half of all caregivers who provide help to older adults do so for someone living with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. Caregivers of those with dementia indicate substantial emotional, financial and physical difficulties as a result of this work. This project implements user-centered design, rich storytelling, and user experience research to create a transmedia storytelling campaign to inform caretakers about how to best care for their loved ones at home. User interviews, location-based observations, and design thinking were used to create an initial low-fidelity prototype. User experience (UX) testing was then employed to gather feedback and then refine the product. Twenty-five participants were selected to test the first prototype, after their feedback was analyzed, a second prototype was developed. The System Usability Scale (SUS) and User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) were administered after the test, and the results were analyzed for patterns and discrepancies. Results showed that the user centered research and design approach was crucial to the success of the design. The prototype met the needs of the users and got positive results on every category. The prototype incorporated a transmedia storytelling campaign with a print booklet and a digital experience through social media accounts. The use of transmedia storytelling as an informative tool to engage users showed to be successful. Participants were eager to navigate the other components of the transmedia experience due to its storytelling nature. This paper details the design thinking process used to develop this project and reports results from user testing.
